Monday, June 14, 2004 | 9:13 a.m.
GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Jeannine Frankenberg plunked nickels into a slot machine at the Oneida Nation Casino on Friday, pausing long enough to say she agreed with the tribe's decision to keep playing new games and pay the state $20 million as scheduled.
"I favor the Indians," the Crivitz woman said. "I think promises have been made and too many times, the government has broken promises. The government is playing games with them."
Tribal chairwoman Cristina Danforth said Friday that a recent state Supreme Court decision that raised questions about casino gambling in Wisconsin will not affect her tribe's gambling operation, one of the largest in the state.
The tribe will make its $20 million payment to the state as scheduled June 30 and continue offering new casino games including craps and roulette, she said at a news conference.
The tribe's gambling compact with the state is no different than the many treaties reached between tribes and state and federal governments over the decades, Danforth said.
Last week, the Ho-Chunk Nation, which runs a large casino in Baraboo, announced that it would suspend the new games June 30 but had not decided whether to make the $30 million payment called for in its compact.
The Forest County Potawatomi tribe has said it will only pay $6.4 million of the $40.5 million called for in its compact with the state.
The different tribal actions follow last month's split ruling in the state Supreme Court that found Gov. Jim Doyle exceeded his authority in signing a gaming compact with the Potawatomi that had no expiration date and allowed new Las Vegas-style games.
The ruling was expected to have a similar impact on the deals Doyle reached with 10 other American Indian tribes in Wisconsin.
The decision named only the Potawatomi as a defendant, and Danforth said each Wisconsin tribe is a separate nation with a separate deal with the state.
"It is like saying that if you sue China, then Russia, because they have a similar business they should have to follow the same conditions of the suit for another country," Danforth said.
Assembly Speaker Jon Gard and Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer, both Republicans, filed the lawsuit last year that led to the high court's decision.
Danforth said the lawsuit was driven by "both partisan politics and racism, only to be used by politicians to bolster their political agendas."
Danforth said casino gambling has become a "political football" in the GOP's partisan game against Doyle, a Democrat.
Asked to specify her complaint of racism, Danforth referred the question to the tribe's chief attorney, Carl Artman.
Artman said Gard and Panzer have said the lawsuit was launched for the citizens of Wisconsin.
"Well, tribal members have been citizens of Wisconsin for many decades, but yet that is being ignored," Artman said. "We are also corporate citizens in the state. But that is being ignored."
Gard and Panzer did not immediately return messages left Friday at their district offices.
The Oneida's new compact with the state has brought in millions of new dollars for the tribe, new customers and created 100 more jobs, Danforth said.
There are no new dates set to meet with the state to talk about possible changes in the compacts, Danforth said.
Gov. Doyle reached the agreements on the compacts last year, and the deals called for the state to get $200 million over the two-year budget period that ends in mid-2005.
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